US Government Crushes Seized Elephant Ivory

Today, the United States government crushed nearly 6 tons of seized elephant ivory in a resounding message to the world that only elephants should wear ivory.

Sending a Message About Elephant Ivory

By destroying its store of seized ivory, the United States government sent a strong signal to the rest of the world that we need to get serious now about saving elephants and ending the demand that is fueling ivory trafficking.

“To crush the ivory in America is of huge symbolic importance,” said Dr. Iain-Douglas Hamilton of Save the Elephants. It’s going to send a message out across the world and remove that ivory from the market forever.”

A Moratorium on Ivory

The US is the second-largest market for ivory in the world. Loopholes in the law against ivory make it difficult to enforce regulations against importing ivory, particularly once ivory is smuggled past our borders.

Conservation leaders used the crush as an opportunity to ask the US government to do more and place a complete moratorium on the ivory trade in the United States.

“The US government have shown great leadership in crushing this ivory,” said Dr. Jane Goodall. “Now it’s time for the leaders to take it a step further and impose a complete ban on the sale of all ivory in the United States.”

Dr. Douglas-Hamilton and Dr. Goodall joined together to give voice to the importance of the crush and the need for the US government to do even more in a new short video filmed for the event. The video premiered at a pre-crush reception held by International Fund for Animal Welfare and World Wildlife Fund. WCN supported the reception as a sponsor. See Dr. Goodall and Dr. Douglas-Hamilton speaking out for elephants in the video below:

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